Filmmaking

Monday, August 20th, 2018 - I got home at 10pm last night. I woke up at 5am that morning not knowing how my day would turn out. It was a beautiful mid-August morning with the hot sweltering heat and humidity of the past couple months finally breaking with a perfect weather day. However, myself and 18 other actors and crew members wouldn't be outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather. We were inside an air-conditioned vacant office in Plainville, MA instead, attempting an impossible feat. From left...

Some of our guest bloggers and their blog posts come from the depths of our lounge threads. They pose a question or statement, and before long, our members are locked in a heated debate about the question. That happened with Cheryl Allen's post, Goin' Guerilla. Here's what she asked: The responses were hot and cold.Up and down.For and against. If you review the thread, as well as my thread looking for some of you who've shot guerilla, you'll see that the term guerilla is defined and u...

Greetings from sunny London.  It's been an inspiring last few days screening our 3rd Annual Short Film Program at the Raindance Film Festival and shining a light on the incredible filmmakers who won this year's competition.  More on that soon, but for now, let's get to the Coffee & Content. First up, last week's Goodfellas Script to Screen proved to be extremely popular, so I figured I'd double up this weekend with a look at Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher's work with The Social Network. Thin...

It wasn't that long ago that my writing partner and I got burned by a cinematographer. We didn't get burned bad, but it was enough to wake me up to the importance of release forms and contracts. If you were part of the lounge discussion a while back, it looked like this:   Dozens of you offered me sound advice, some of which we took after talking to a lawyer. The issue was resolved and we found an incredible DP who got the job done. My takeaway was simple: ALWAYS HAVE A SIGNED CONTRAC...

Some of you have seen the power of connecting right here on Stage 32.Some of you are still discovering that power. Here is one story of how Stage 32 connections are changing the way we move and connect with other creatives in the film industry. More Than a Hello When Stage 32 decided to become the networking partner for the first ever VIP Film and TV Summit in Washington D.C. on August 25th, 2018, we had no idea that our fast-growing social and education network was a big part of how event...

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my career as a screenwriter (on projects like HBO’s Band of Brothers) – and as a teacher and consultant to writers at all levels – it’s that projects tend to live or die based on their core idea or concept. That’s why I called my new book The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction.     As a professional writer, my agents and managers have tried to talk me out of most of my ideas for series or screenplays, and they’ve...

Happy Sunday to all.  Let's jump right in. First, from the guys at Script to Screen, it's a look at the famous bar scene from Goodfellas.  Get your shine box and settle in. Next, from our friends at Apture, it's 4 Cinematic Lighting Setups for filmmakers. Finally, over the last 7 years, I've received hundreds (literally) of DM's, emails, etc, asking me for recommendations on books, movies, scripts to read, workout equipment, diet and supplement advice and other things I'd rather not mentio...

More women. More minorities. More diversity. These are the rumblings both on and off set at a television series being created near you. (Or not near you, but still being created.) According to a study completed by the Directors Guild of America, the number of women and minorities seeing employment in television creation has increased. Is there room for improvement? Always. But as it stands now, the DGA found that over the past nine seasons, 82 female directors accounted for 41% of first time...

Earlier this year, Stage 32, in conjunction with Oscar nominated and Emmy Award winning producer Kip Konwiser, offered a Mentorship program called Getting Your Projects Made Inside of One Year with Kip at the helm. Kip and his brother Kern have collaborated and partnered with luminaries such as Kenny Ortega, Quincy Jones, Peter Guber, David Falk, Magic Johnson, the Grateful Dead, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock, Chuck D, Oliver Stone, Darren Aronofsky, Laurence Fishburne, and Clint Eastwood, amon...

“This is a tried and true story of success, failure, redemption etc. It works, only problem here is your audience will almost be entirely Korean as unless I'm mistaken that Korean pop music is really only popular in Korea.” “However, I am passing more because of the story here as I think it doesn't have enough of an American audience yet.” “KPOP is a world, yes, and it has its fans, but it's not quite mass-audience enough to, in my opinion, justify the type of budget level that we're general...